Stephen Thompson was unaware fight with Johny Hendricks was 5 rounds

When Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson signed the initial contract to fight Johny Hendricks at UFC 196 the fight was scheduled for 3 rounds and was to serve as the co-main event.

Last month Cain Velasquez withdrew from his main event scrap with Fabricio Werdum due to a back injury. The UFC replaced Velasquez with Stipe Miocic, however Fabricio Werdum then withdrew from the bout with a back injury. Werdum caught criticism for withdrawing from the bout before revealing that he also has a broken foot.

The UFC promoted the co-main event bout between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to the main event and moved the event to Fox Sports 1. With the change Stephen Thompson didn’t realize that the bout was now a 5-round scrap, however that’s what he wanted anyway!

He spoke to MMAJunkie:

“My dad is usually the one talking to (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva and the UFC – I didn’t know. They didn’t talk to me; they talked to my pops. But I was going up to my dad and saying, ‘Hey, I want to do five five-minute rounds – let’s see if we can get this.

“He was like, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ I didn’t hear anything back from him until I saw it on social media. So it was all pops’ fault.”